Following last yearís surprise Worst Company In America victory by Electronic Arts, there was hope that the video game giant would get the message: Stop treating your customers like human piggy banks, and donít put out so many incomplete and/or broken games with the intent of getting your customers to pay extra for what they should have received in the first place. And yet, here we are again, with EA becoming the first company to ever win a second Golden Poo from Consumerist readers.

After an astounding number of votes, Consumerist readers once again chose EA over Bank of America, with the video game company taking nearly 78% of the vote.

I think Peter Moor probably clenched it with his poor organizational communication in which he took responsibility for several things and then threw away any goodwill that earned him by being squirrelly about other complaints.

inscribed

04-09-2013 09:02 PM

How did Paypal not make it past the first round?!

Mazzicc

04-09-2013 09:06 PM

Meh. I'd have more faith in this if I hadn't seen so many blogs and "news" sites covering this with passive encouragement to go continue the streak, especially in their comments and forums. A lot of people didn't vote for who they thought was worse, they just voted to make sure EA "won".

I'd be curious if the EA votes got more total voters than the other votes from people not coming to actually voice an opinion on the worst company, but to badmouth EA.

The ISPs, media giants, and banks ALL deserved this far more than EA.

randir14

04-09-2013 09:07 PM

I'm not surprised to see Wells Fargo on there. They constantly change their policies, the only reason I signed up with them in the first place is because the account was free. Then a year later out of the blue they decided to charge all free accounts a monthly fee. I'm sure in the future they'll decide to nickle and dime people with debit card fees, online banking fees, etc.

PatrickRes9

04-09-2013 09:20 PM

You know...

I almost jumped in on the "Oh, they're so deserving" wagon, but I got to thinking a little:

Companies do terrible things all of the time. I've worked for one. Slave labor, impacting the market horribly for the consumer, lying, stealing on massive scales, etc.

How could a video game company get this award? For DRM and micro-transactions? Who cares...? I mean comparatively.

Facebook (glad I don't have an account), Ticket Master and AT&T deserve it more then EA

Mortdagony

04-09-2013 09:26 PM

Micro$oft beat Apple

I agree with that but for some reason it make me smile haha

Old school fight ftw

PatrickRes9

04-09-2013 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bean19
(Post 2201762)

@PatrickRes - Bread and circuses.

True that, bean.

And it seems the further we go down that direction, the more people feel like they really don't have a choice, so it ends out being an exponential effect.

ElektroDragon

04-09-2013 10:13 PM

I remember when Electronic Arts was all about putting the game designers front and center, even including their photos and bios in game boxes, and did pioneering things like the first game boxes that were flat and opened like vinyl double album..

Yeah, this was circa 1988, Bard's Tale, Commodore 64 -Amiga era.

Azrael

04-09-2013 10:17 PM

Wonder if anyone at EA actually cares about this... after all they keep making games and people keep buying them

lockwoodx

04-09-2013 11:13 PM

That chart goes to show you the majority of people with money and a voice in America play video games, not watch TV. (and I don't blame them with most decent shows either 90% commercials or chorus outbreaks by gay dudes)

ElfShotTheFood

04-10-2013 05:09 AM

Man-children win again.

Jhooud

04-10-2013 05:50 AM

Poor Bank of America. I mean, here they've been blamed as being a part of the financial meltdown that cost many Americans their homes, jobs and savings and they get beat by simcity. I mean, what does a banker have to do to be considered truly evil? Burn an orphanage? And look at Carnaval. We trap our customers at sea as though we were real life sadistic sims players and what do we get? Third round? Bah. At least Comcast made the final four. I'm sure they'll redouble their efforts for next year. "Your call is really important to us. Like totes. Please keep holding."

Terran

04-10-2013 06:13 AM

EA Exec, throwing down LGBT card (the NEW and IMPROVED racism card!): "The homophobes are to blame, not our business practices!"

---EA Exec looks around for nods of approval, a pat on the back, some rainbows and unicorns ---

The country is circling the drain economically and EA is the worst? I have no love for them (won't buy their games any longer, in fact), but they're far from the worst on the list.

Trickyicky

04-10-2013 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jhooud
(Post 2201823)

Poor Bank of America. I mean, here they've been blamed as being a part of the financial meltdown that cost many Americans their homes, jobs and savings and they get beat by simcity. I mean, what does a banker have to do to be considered truly evil? Burn an orphanage? And look at Carnaval. We trap our customers at sea as though we were real life sadistic sims players and what do we get? Third round? Bah. At least Comcast made the final four. I'm sure they'll redouble their efforts for next year. "Your call is really important to us. Like totes. Please keep holding."

Don't you know? Any time somebody can't connect to Sim City, thier life is ruined. At least when Bank of America soullessly destroys your life, Jhooud feels sorry for you!

ldi222

04-10-2013 06:57 AM

This was clearly not a rational vote, it was an emotional one. Hmmm....